SlimShady's ARR Setup Guide banner
6 Core apps in the stack
10 Deep-dive guide sections
14 SAB connections tuned
45s Downloader timeout baseline

What this guide is about

This site is a practical beginner-friendly walkthrough for building a mostly automated media setup with Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, SABnzbd, Jackett, and Plex.

It is designed for people who want more than a vague feature list. Each major app page explains what the tool is for, where to download it, how to install it, how to do the basic configuration, and only then how to apply the smarter refinements that made this setup cleaner, faster, and more reliable in real testing.

It focuses on smarter quality rules, safer quotas, cleaner storage, and the kind of real-world fixes you only learn after ARR tools do something deeply confident and slightly cursed.

Guide traffic: Visitor counter
Start with the checklist See Sonarr setup See Radarr setup See Lidarr setup See SAB tuning See Jackett setup See Plex setup See MDBList automation See German-friendly strategy Review quality and sizes Open the GitHub repo

Latest Guide Updates

Use this as the quick project pulse. If you come back after a few days, this table shows what changed, when it changed, and where to read the updated section first.

Updated What changed Read it here
2026-05-20 Added the Lucifer case study and the safer German lock Sonarr profile logic. Sonarr Setup and Workflows
2026-05-20 Clarified how compact x265 should be preferred without blocking valid German x264 releases. Quality, Sizing, and Downgrades
2026-05-19 Added stronger introduction boxes and made the app guides easier for non-technical readers to follow step by step. Docs Index
2026-05-18 Split the stack into dedicated app pages for Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Jackett, Plex, and SABnzbd. Setup Checklist
2026-05-16 Documented the more stable live SABnzbd tuning and the newer downgrade workflow lessons. SABnzbd Tuning and Reliability
2026-05-16 Added the live-tested ARR quality and downgrade changes that made the setup smaller, calmer, and more reliable. Quality, Sizing, and Downgrades

For the full running history, see the project changelog.

What you get in this guide

This site is a practical beginner-friendly guide for the full stack and the rules around it:

Sonarr Radarr Lidarr SABnzbd Jackett Plex regional language strategy language-aware automation size control safe downgrade workflows

How to work through it without losing your mind

If you are new, do not try to configure the whole stack in one dramatic weekend battle. Start with the checklist, install one app at a time, confirm the base setup works, and then return for the recommended refinements once the boring foundations are solid.

Understand the app first Install it cleanly Do the base config Add our refinements after that Test on a few titles first

Latest live tuning that helped

The guide now reflects the newer, more stable configuration that behaved better in real testing:

SABnzbd Direct Unpack = off connections = 14 receive_threads = 4 timeout = 45 smaller downgrade waves curated 480p old-movie lane

Introduction

This guide is meant to be read in layers. First learn what each tool does in plain English. Then install it and get the basic folders, categories, and connections working. Only after the stack behaves normally should you apply the sharper refinements that make it more compact, more reliable, and more pleasant to live with.

If you are not highly technical, that is not a problem. The pages are structured so you can go step by step without needing to already understand how all six apps talk to each other on day one.

General setup first

The core docs stay broad on purpose so the main stack is easy to understand even if you are not building around one specific language or region.

Storage-aware quality rules

Compact 1080p movies, 720p-first series, and downgrade workflows that actually save space instead of creating comedy.

Regional strategy when you need it

If you want a German-friendly setup, there is a dedicated specialist page for language scoring, provider roles, and quota-aware source strategy.

Download the Apps

These are the main applications used in this setup:

App Purpose Download
Sonarr TV series and anime automation sonarr.tv
Radarr Movie and anime movie automation radarr.video
Lidarr Music automation lidarr.audio
SABnzbd Main Usenet downloader sabnzbd.org/downloads
Jackett Torrent indexer bridge GitHub Releases
Plex Media server, scraping, and playback plex.tv/media-server-downloads
FlareSolverr Optional helper for protected torrent sites GitHub Releases

Optional but useful:

App Purpose Download
OpenAI Codex Optional configuration assistant and implementation copilot OpenAI Academy
Jellyseerr Requests and discovery frontend GitHub
Prowlarr Central ARR indexer management prowlarr.com

The Setup at a Glance

flowchart LR
    classDef source fill:#0f172a,stroke:#38bdf8,stroke-width:2px,color:#e0f2fe
    classDef arr fill:#172554,stroke:#60a5fa,stroke-width:2px,color:#dbeafe
    classDef search fill:#052e16,stroke:#4ade80,stroke-width:2px,color:#dcfce7
    classDef download fill:#3f2a00,stroke:#fbbf24,stroke-width:2px,color:#fef3c7
    classDef library fill:#3b0764,stroke:#c084fc,stroke-width:2px,color:#f3e8ff

    A["Discovery Layer<br/>MDBList (movies/shows) / Music Import Lists / Manual Add"] --> B["ARR Apps<br/>Sonarr / Radarr / Lidarr"]
    B --> C["Search Layer<br/>Usenet Indexers / Jackett"]
    C --> D["Download Layer<br/>SABnzbd / Torrent Client"]
    D --> E["Library Processing<br/>Import / Rename / Organize"]
    E --> F["Playback Layer<br/>Plex Library Scan"]
    F --> G["Ready to Watch / Listen"]

    class A source
    class B arr
    class C search
    class D download
    class E,F,G library

What the Full Stack Does

This guide covers more than just choosing a few quality settings.

The real stack works like this:

  • Import Lists or manual additions feed new movies, series, artists, and albums into the ARR apps
  • the ARR apps search indexers using your rules
  • the download client fetches the release
  • the ARR apps import, rename, and organize the final files
  • Plex scans the finished library and makes it available to watch or listen to

When everything is configured properly, it becomes a mostly automated media pipeline instead of a pile of separate tools.

Who This Is For

This guide is especially useful if:

  • you are technical, but not an ARR specialist
  • you work in IT, security, or adjacent technical areas
  • you are comfortable learning systems
  • but you do not want to spend days decoding every Sonarr and Radarr setting from scratch

It is also useful if you are not especially technical, but are willing to:

  • work step by step
  • follow a practical checklist
  • use OpenAI Codex as a setup assistant instead of trying to configure the whole stack from memory

It comes from real setup work done by someone with technical experience and a practical mindset, not from a developer-only perspective.

It was also built and refined with the support of OpenAI Codex, which helped inspect the live configuration, test ideas, compare indexers, and apply changes safely.

Start Here

MDBList and Auto-Import

MDBList is one of the easiest ways to build automated movie and TV discovery without maintaining giant manual watchlists by hand.

In this setup, it works like this:

  • your MDBList dynamic lists act as the discovery layer for movies and shows
  • Radarr and Sonarr poll those lists every 5 minutes in the live reference setup used for this guide
  • new items found on the list are added into the ARR app with your existing quality, language, and root-folder rules
  • once added, they are monitored and then picked up by normal RSS/search behavior

For Lidarr, keep the same overall idea but use music-oriented import-list sources instead of MDBList.

That makes MDBList the front door of the automation chain for movies and shows, while ARR still controls the download rules and final library behavior.

What This Guide Tries to Do

Most ARR guides explain features.

This one tries to answer:

  • what should you actually enable
  • what should you avoid
  • how should you set priorities
  • how do you adapt the stack for language-specific needs without burning through quotas
  • how do you save disk space without downloading worse files by accident

Want Help Applying It?

If you do not want to implement everything manually, you can use OpenAI Codex as a practical ARR setup copilot.

For non-technical users, this is often the easiest way to approach the project:

  1. open one section of the guide
  2. ask Codex to explain that section in plain English
  3. let Codex help apply that exact step
  4. verify the result
  5. then move to the next section

This guide works well as input for Codex, for example if you want help to:

  • audit your current Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, and SABnzbd setup
  • apply the recommended indexer priorities
  • implement language-scoring rules
  • tune quality profiles and size limits
  • build safe downgrade workflows
  • debug import or search issues

So yes, this guide is not only meant to be read by humans. It can also be handed to Codex so it can help implement the configuration in your own setup.

Short Version

  • use broad indexers for daily work
  • preserve specialist or quota-limited sources for when they matter
  • prefer 720p for series
  • prefer compact 1080p for movies
  • treat downgrades as a controlled workflow, not a magic button

If a setting sounds too clever, test it on a few titles first. ARR tools are excellent at turning confidence into comedy.